The US Treasury Department (Treasury) has updated its list of the countries that require cooperation with, or participation in, an international boycott as a condition of doing business. The Treasury published the updated list in the Federal Register on 8 April 2021.
The countries listed are Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the Republic of Yemen. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is removed from the previous list that the Treasury published in the Federal Register on 13 October 2020.
The Treasury has removed the UAE from the list because the UAE repealed its law mandating a boycott of Israel and it subsequently has taken actions to implement the new policy.
The listed countries are identified pursuant to section 999 of the US Internal Revenue Code (IRC), which requires US taxpayers to file reports with the Treasury concerning operations in the boycotting countries. Such taxpayers incur adverse consequences under the IRC, including denial of US foreign tax credits (FTCs) for taxes paid to those countries and income inclusion under subpart F of the IRC in the case of US shareholders of controlled foreign corporations (CFCs) that conduct operations in those countries.